As I was reading through education news on several of the news sites I regularly visit, I came across an article on a report by GEMS Education about the release of of their Efficiency Index for 30 nations worldwide. Looking at costs for teachers and then at educational outcomes, the report places the USA 19th. Taking top honors was Finland with Brazil coming in at the bottom.

According tho the report, to increase efficiency the USA could increase class sizes and reduce teacher salaries. One of the authors of the report says these are things that could be done, not necessarily what should be done.

I was bothered by a part of the report that states that, while paying teachers too little could keep potentially great teachers from entering education, paying teachers too much could encourage complacency. Applying this line of reasoning to other professions, then paying exorbitant health care costs would lead to complacent doctors, or paying CEOs of major companies millions of dollars could decrease their performance. This is a bad message and taints the validity of the report and the conclusions that are being drawn from it.